Chapter 25 — Jade Void of Kunlun

"So it would seem my second Origin-born is also a monster, and ought to be able to cultivate! All these days I've just let it evolve on its own—true, it's been fed on Chi You's bloodline, but the effect wears off with overuse; cultivation would be faster. One of these days I'll find a set of monster cultivation methods and train the Origin-born myself—that wouldn't be bad either," Zhou Shuo thought.

After a long while, Zhou Chen opened his eyes. The white mist shrouding his body was drawn in until not a trace remained. Since absorbing the inner core of the Eight-Pole Wolf King, Zhou Chen's power had advanced by leaps and bounds, and Zhou Xuan could only nod again and again as he watched.

"Master, you've finally come out! Is everything all right?" The moment he opened his eyes, Zhou Chen caught sight of Zhou Yan before him and asked at once—referring, of course, to that sudden burst of Tantric true words.

"Er... well... this... this. I was forging a Buddhist dharma artifact and ran into a small problem. It's solved now, no trouble at all!" Zhou Sui himself found the whole thing incredible and could make neither head nor tail of it, and he had no wish to pursue the subject. "By the way, Chenchen! Your master saw that you still had no magic treasure or flying sword, so I made one for you specially!" With a flick of his hand there appeared a flying sword one foot and five fen long and two fingers wide, its whole body radiating cold light in every direction, with an aura of the sharpest possible Geng-metal faintly coiling and circling about it. Zhou Chen stared blankly; he knew this sword was no ordinary thing. "Master! But what about you? This is your own sword!" After all, in his struggle with the Heaven-Mystery Blood Demon, Zhou Chen had long since gotten a clear look at that flying sword.

Seeing his lie exposed, Zhou Xuan blushed—a rare thing for him. "Well... your master has no more use for it now, so it's yours. This flying sword is forged entirely of Grand-ultimate Essence-gold, sharp beyond all compare, and I've added gold-spirit talismans to it as well. It may not have as many functions as other flying swords, but for sheer keenness it has few rivals under heaven. You Cen's body is pure, which will greatly benefit your cultivation." He drew a book from his bosom and handed it to Zhou Chen together with the flying sword. "This is Shushan's Art of Sword-qi Soaring the Void. I don't know whether you of the demon race can cultivate it, but since Little Jin can, you ought to be able to as well."

"Tsk! Tsk! Sister! Your master's quite good to you!" The little fox had come to her senses and now walked up to Zhou Xuan, tilted back her head, and studied him closely. "How is he so young? He doesn't look like a master at all!"

"Then what do I look like, little fox?" Zhou Xuan found the little fox utterly adorable and could not resist teasing her.

"Hateful! Don't call me little fox—sister gave me a name. I'm called Zhou Can." So saying, the little fox stretched out a hand. Zhou Jin blinked. "What's this for?" "A meeting gift! You gave sister one just now, so I want one too."

"Cancan! No mischief. Your power is still shallow—the master's magic treasures are mighty, and you couldn't wield them at all. When your power is greater, the master will naturally give you one." Seeing Zhou Xuan's face darken, Zhou Chen hurried forward and slapped the little fox's hand down.

Who would have guessed that Liao Yanqiao would lean in and say, "Cancan! It's no matter—the master is the most generous of men; he's sure to give you one."

Zhou Xuan suddenly felt his teeth itch. I've only got so many presentable pieces to my name, and you're out to strip my household bare! But pressed by Liao Yanqiao's words, Zhou Li felt he could not lose face before a little girl. Gritting his teeth, Zhou Xuan abruptly fished an iron seal three inches square from his bosom.

Liao Yanqiao's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Master, you're really giving that to her?" Liao Yanqiao had long coveted Zhou Yan's Heaven-Flipping Seal—not for any other reason than its sheer might; the feel of smashing a man with a block of iron several zhang across, just thinking of it made Liao Yanqiao feel grand.

"Had I known, I'd never have goaded the master into bringing out a magic treasure. Damn it, in the master's hands I might still have had a chance to get it, but now it's fallen into the little fox's hands—how could I bring myself to ask for it?" Liao Yanqiao regretted it bitterly; his guts must have turned green.

"This seal is called Heaven-Flipping. I made it in imitation of the ancient marvel the Heaven-Overturning Seal; it serves well enough both for defense and attack!" Zhou Xuan raised his hand, and the three-inch seal body swelled to more than a zhang across, wreathed in blue light with talismanic script flickering faintly within, until stars danced in the little fox's eyes.

Zhou Chen hastily thanked Zhou Xuan on the little fox's behalf. "Master, when it comes to artifact-forging, a few of our people are highly skilled too—it's just that we have no good materials. The slightly better heavenly treasures and earthly gems are all monopolized by those sects now; we demons who aren't strong enough have no way to get them at all. Otherwise we would never have been wiped out by the Blood Demon." Zhou Chen's voice was bitter.

"Indeed! But that Blood Demon is no simple matter—a demon cultivated from a thousand years of foul blood that had absorbed the death-qi of the underworld; his arts are vicious beyond compare, and even I am not sure I could handle him. Revenge will be very difficult for you!" At Zhou Yan's words, Zhou Chen's face too turned grave. Even the little fox fell silent.

In the Western Regions stands a mountain range stretching ten thousand li. If one looked down from a height of ten thousand fathoms, one would see that the range resembled a giant dragon, its head facing squarely toward the Central Plains. Streams of five-colored clouds spewed from the dragon's mouth and fell upon the Central Plains, then vanished without a trace.

Mount Kunlun—none other than Kunlun, called the foremost divine mountain of high antiquity. There the ancient sage the Primal Lord of Heaven established his ashram and founded the Exposition Teachings, commanding the host of immortals. Countless myths and legends had come down from it. At the dragon's brow, a vast Daoist temple loomed faintly, indistinct as though in a painting, so that one could not see it truly. On the several emerald peaks around it stood other temples, great and small. Stranger still, the Kunlun range stood so high that its snows never melted, and countless peaks piercing the clouds were white with snow—yet these few peaks were brimming with the verdure of spring, with not a shadow of snow about them.

If one walked into the valley enclosed by those emerald peaks and looked up, one would see white clouds drifting beneath that vast temple, as though it floated in midair. A stairway seemingly woven of white cloud, of unknowable length, led far off to the great temple at least several hundred zhang above the ground. The temple itself was strangely built, constructed wholly of great blocks of white jade, utterly unlike ordinary temples—rather, it had something of the palace about it.